When Everything Has Gone to Sh t
by AlbinoLungs
Summary: AU. Instead of sending members of the Justice League to assorted plants on New Years, Vandal Savage sent them to Washington DC to create havoc there. The repercussions; the 'Super Hero Recall' act. Forced out of their aliased state and into serving the Government directly - the work of superheroes has ended. What happens 5 years later when The Light returns? Read for more details.
1. Chapter 1

**Yes, I've been watching _Watchmen _again. Sue me!**

**Just to explain the prologue, I've set it up in script form to be like one was watching the there is a break line, that's like an 'inserted scene' if that makes sense. Hope it does!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**REPORTER**: Tonight's top story is the one the world has been waiting for; the passing of the 'Superhero Recall Act'. As most of you remember, on December 31st of last year, six members of the Justice League - that is Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, Martian Manhunter, one of the Green Lanterns, and Hawkwoman viciously attacked Washington, DC with no motive. While on trail for the attack, the six offenders claimed that they had no memory of the attack, no did any of the other members of the Justice League. It was then that, to the world's surprise, eight sidekicks to the members of the Justice League stepped forward and claimed that 'Leaguers' had been under brain control of Vandal Savage. But there alibi's proved wrong as Vandal Savage had not been seen since one month prior to the event, and is still missing. The entirety of the Justice League - including their sidekicks - were found guilty for all charges. After this turn of events, the UN gathered and created the 'Superhero Recall Act' which would make the act of 'superheroing' illegal -

_**CLIP OF POLITICIAN**: From now on - anyone found to be using super natural powers, advanced weaponry, or seen to be involved with some sort of _ outside of the justice system will be under arrest for treason and acts of terrorism. Arrest will also occur if each hero fails to provide and enclose their secret identity that will be made available to the public._

**REPORTER**: - Some human rights group defended the side of the hero's, claiming that they had spent more years protecting us then endangering us. However, their voices where drowned in the cries of civilians everywhere who wanted protection from they hero's who threaten our existence-

**_CLIP OF CIVILIAN_**: _This may have been their only offense, but __will__ it be the only one? How can we be sure that these 'superior beings' aren't planning something worse? They surely are capable of it._

**REPORTER**: - Now, it was just this morning that the act was passed amongst the members of the UN whom all voted in favor. This is a historic event in itself as the UN has been known to never agree on any decision. But the question on everyone's mind is; what happens to the current superhero's? Tonight, we are joined by the US Representative to the UN, Susan Rice. Now, Mrs. Rice, what can we expect to see happen to our 'not-so-trusting' Justice League?

**RICE**: For starters, Batman has been placed in a maximum security prison, and Wonderwoman and Hawkwoman have been sent back to their original home for imprisonment. Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern will be deported back to their home planets where their governments have agreed to keep them incarcerated.

**REPORTER**: And what of the rest of the Justice League and their sidekicks?

**RICE**: Atlanteans, and all other humanoids bearing supernatural powers will be sent to their place of birth in means of incarceration -

* * *

_Kaldur stumbled as ten strong men pushed and hauled him through a crowd of screaming individuals to the waters edge at Pearl Harbor. They had done well enough to keep him from being physically harassed by angry civilians, but Kaldur could still hear their cries of hate._

_"Freak!" "Water-breathing animal!"_

_In the distance, he saw his King being loaded into a small submarine pod that would take him to Atlantis. Kaldur knew his fate would be the same._

_"In there!" yelled one of the men. _

_Kaldur inhaled and stepped into his own empty pod - self-piloted to take him to the ocean's deep. Before the door closed, he looked out once more at the civilization he had come to protect._

_"Go home fish-boy!" "Hope you get eaten by a shark!"_

_He didn't hate them - he hated himself for letting them down._

* * *

**RICE**: - Likewise, all alien beings will be sent back to their home planets to be imprisoned. Green Lantern's will be sent to their base where they will be incarcerated as well.

* * *

_"M'gann!"_

_"Conner!" _

_Conner watched helplessly from a steel cage as the love of his was being dragged away by two men to a rocket destined for Mars. Around her neck was an inhibitor collar, and chains were at her wrists. The rest of the team was still in the Mountain, awaiting their fate. Had he not had a collar on, he would have ripped the cage to sheds and saved her. _

_"Quiet!" said one of the men. Without giving her a chance, he shoved a tranquilizer in her neck and injected the fluid. _

_"NO!" yelled Conner as M'gann went limp. Although she was asleep, she was still crying. The men lazily loaded her body into the rocket, and cleared the launch pad before it took off. _

_"You too lover boy!"_

_Suddenly, Conner's collar gave him a harsh zap of electricity that just about knocked him out. Before his eyes closed, he saw the rocket flam up and start accelerating into the sky._

_"no…"_

* * *

**REPORTER**: But what of the two Super's?

**RICE**: That was defiantly a tricky one. Seeing as though their planet of birth has been destroyed, we shall keep them here on earth under house arrest in Superman's Fortress of Solitude which we have just recently learned the whereabouts of. Armed guards will circulate the premises 24/7 armed with Kryptonite weapons which has been obtained from Lex Luthor. However, we will also have Superman instruct the US army on how to use the Watchtower, and the Superboy will teach the army how to use Mt. Justice to it's full capacity.

**REPORTER**: How about humanoids with powers self-developed powers?

**RICE**: Humans with supernatural abilities will be placed in randomly selected penitentiaries. Preferably as far away from each other as possible.

* * *

_Wally and Zatanna stood side-by-side in the main hall of Mt. Justice. Each were bound at the wrists and ankles by chains, and had two big men holding each of their arms. Around their necks were inhibitor collars - charged and at the ready._

_Off to the side were Artemis, Roy, Raquel and Dick - watching as each other their friends had their fate decided._

_"Zatanna Zatara - NYC Juvenile hall,"_

_"No!" yelled Dick as he struggled as much as he could, but he didn't put of much of a fight only to make sure that the situation didn't get any worse. Would it not have had any punishments - he would have defiantly broken free._

_Zatanna turned to face him one last time before being pushed out of the mountain. Dick fell to his knees at the sight of her departure._

_"And Wally West - Texas State Juvenile hall,"_

_"GRRAHHH!"_

_Artemis did not share Dick's rationality. Instead, she slammed her head forcefully into one of the guards - knocking him to the ground - and kicked the other in the groin hard enough to knock the wind out of him. Although she was still bound, she bolted for Wally and through her lips onto his. They shared one last sloppy kiss before they were pulled aggressively apart. _

_"WALLY!" shrieked Artemis, only to by silenced by a shock from her collar._

_"ARTEMIS!" shouted Wally, who was also quickly silenced by a shock._

* * *

**REPORTER**: And the humanoids without powers-?

**RICE**: Have been granted to walk freely amongst us. Now that we have their personal information, we will be able to monitor them and there actions. However, if they violate any part of the act, or strike another human being, they will be placed into immediate incarceration until they have paid their debt-

* * *

_Dick could feel several of his ribs pop as five upperclassmen from his school slammed him hard against the brick walls of Gotham Academy's exterior. When they let go of him, and collapse to the ground like a house of cards. _

_"Get up bird-brain!" yelled one of them. "C'mon! Let's see your best shot! Hit me! I dare you!" _

_Dick struggled to host himself. He had been in worse situations like this, but in those moments, adrenaline and kicked in and helped him keep going. Here, things would only get worse if retaliated. _

_One of them knelt down beside his ear and whispered. "You want to hit me, don't you? But you can't. Some hero you turned out to be, flipping around in that little's girls outfit - fucking fag!" he spat. "You know- ARGH!"_

_Dick turned to see that the boy had been flipped onto his back and was mostly knocked-out. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the other four boys start to back away slowly - Artemis growling at them. "You want to fuck with him? You gotta get through me you sons of bitches!"_

_Dick struggled to have his voice heard. "Artemis! No-" But it was too late. Within seconds school security was rushing towards her - armed with taser guns. Not having enough time to react, Artemis was hit with powerful volts of electricity that sent her down like a sack of potatoes. The guards chained her wrist behind her back, and carried her to their cruiser. _

_"That'll be six months for you, scumbag,"_

_Dick watched as another one of his friends got carried away. "No…!" said Dick though pools of blood that were forming in his mouth. Before he could protest further, one of the boys ran back and kick Dick hard enough in he stomach that he passed out. _

* * *

**RICE**: -Also, in general, when they are of age, it will be compulsory that they join the American Army.

* * *

_Roy sat strapped down to the 'barber's' chair in the Washington Military Base and watched helplessly as his already short hair was being buzzed further down to no more than a prickly scalp. It din't hurt him physically, but it tortured him mentally. No the hair cut itself, but the fact that with every strand of hair lost, a piece of his freedom fluttered to the ground with it._

_"Ready to learn how to REALLY fight, brat?" shouted a lieutenant in his face. _

_Roy cringed - only imagining what he would do to the lieutenant had he been allowed to strike someone._

* * *

**REPORTER**: Quite interesting. Now, what of advanced weaponry they possess?

**RICE**: Those weapons will be handed over to the US army. There, we will recreated the weapon, learn how to use it, and attempt to use it for the sake of peace - not destruction.

* * *

_Rocket wanted to laugh as scientists dashed about the lab trying to deconstruct her belt. They wanted to learn it's mechanics to copy it later. However - none of them knew how to activate it. Raquel had shown them, but the belt didn't react to their touch._

_However, she couldn't laugh. Her mind was with her friends. She hadn't known them for too long, but missed them dearly. Actually, she wanted to cry, but couldn't. Not in-front of these men. she wouldn't allow herself to give them the satisfaction. _

* * *

**REPORTER**: Well, Thanks for joining us Susan. I'm sure individuals everywhere will sleep safely tonight. Coming up later, the fate of Wayne Industries; once an economic empire, now a controversial superhero embezzlement scheme. Will the company that kept the Gotham economy running be shut down, thus loosing the city half of its job and sending it into bankruptcy for the sole purpose of it being run by a superhero who is now in prison? Find out later tonight.

* * *

Turning off the television set, Vandal Savages turned to his colleges with a huge grin spread on his face. "I couldn't have asked for it to go any better,"

"I could have!" whined Klarion as he crossed his arms firmly over his chest. "They could have ordered death penalties for those losers and eliminated are only problem!"

"Why waste the resources?" asked Lex Luthor with a smile on his face."We may need some help later, and they could come in handy for that,"

"I hate to admit it, but the Witch-Boy has a valid point," sighed Ra's al Ghul. "I would see us having use for Batman - but too many of them still running around sounds like a poor idea, wouldn't you say?"

"Are you still obsessed with that barbarian?" taunted Brain from his seat.

"Gentlemen," said Queen Bee rather harshly. Ra's shifted uncomfortable in his seat and smoothed out his shirt. Queen Bee gave Vandal a nod to continue.

"Thank you, your highness," said smiled. "And, if I may ask, are you ready for the next part of our plan?"

Queen Bee's smile grew as she gave another nod.

"Perfect. Well then, gentlemen, phase one was successfully completed. Phase two is well underway. A few more years and The Light will be seen by everyone,"

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**This chapter was a little rushed - others will be better. I just wanted a quick prologue before the story began.**

**What do you think? Tell me in a REVIEW please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for the wait. Like most stories I start, I have a hard time figuring out where they'll go. I have a pretty good I idea for now, so I'm allowing myself to upload chapters!.**

**Sidenote; the next few chapters are going to be bouncing around time a lot, so just so we have a timeline; t****he team was formed in 2010, The New Year's mission happened on 2011, the Act was passed that February. **

**Enjoy this next bit!**

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_Two months later..._

Superman prided himself on the fact that he had never touched alcohol in his life. Because of this, he was never reward with the feeling of a hangover the next day (of course, he was a super-being, so it probably wouldn't have an effect on him anyway).

However, he did have very sensitive ears. Ears that could hear farther and clearer than any human form known to man. So when there was a loud sound, he felt the horrible headache and sick feeling in his gut.

So every time Superboy had on of his fits, Superman would feel dizzy afterwords.

This morning was no exception.

Superman had been peacefully sleeping in his bed when he suddenly heard a loud banging at the front door. But by the sounds of it, it was coming from inside the fortress - not outside. He started to panic for a brief moment, but once he came to his senses, he knew who it was.

Sighing, he jumped out of his bed and ran right to the entrance to the fortress where he saw - not to his surprise - Superboy banging as hard as he could on the door - trying to get out.

"Con El!" shouted Superman as he raced over to the determined young teen. "Con El, stop!"

Superman grabbed one of Superboy's arms, but Superboy was able to shake him off for a second. Regathering his bearings, Superman grabbed Superboy's arm again. "Con El, it's no use!"

"THEN WHY DON'T YOU TRY?" yelled Superboy in his face. The sudden and unwarranted outburst slightly scared Superman and caused him to jump. "Do you like sitting in here? trapped like rats while they use us?" screamed the younger Super.

Superman frowned at Superboy. They had this conversation at least once a week and it always started and ended the same way. "We've been over this, Con El! They laced the fortress with lead! Even if we tried we can't break out!"

"'Tried'? You _never _even 'try'! All you do is sit back and let them put collars on our necks and force us to teach them how we used our technology! Some hero you turned out to be!"

Superman growled. "What would you have me do, huh? Punch them all in the face so they die? Kill innocent men for doing their job? Be tranquilized and make things worse for other superheroes? Worse for _YOU_?"

"Make things worse? They already sent M'gann away! How can I get any worse!"

A silence fell between them. Superman was a little more stunned into silence this time. They had hit a very sensitive nerve for the young Super.

Superboy never mentioned M'gann in their arguments. Sure, he talked about her on days when he was felling down, but he never got this bad. Superman wasn't really surprised. It couldn't have been easy for his clone - who wasn't even two years old yet - to deal with it. He had been through too much, and Superman wished he could help him more.

Then, things became a little clearer for Superman; that's why Superboy tried to break out every so often. He wanted to try and get M'gann back. Both knew that he wouldn't even get past the door without being tranquilized and imprisoned, but the boy still tried.

Superboy dropped his eyes to the ground and started to blink rapidly - probably trying to prevent tears. Superman sighed and placed a hand on the shoulder of his young clone.

"Look, little brother-"

"Stop calling me that!" said Superboy, pushing the older man's hand off his shoulder "I came from _your_ DNA. I'm your _son_! Why can't you just admit that?"

Superman didn't have time to answer as Superboy just stomped off to his room and shut the door behind him.

The older Kryptonian rubbed his face. The whole son/brother thing was only the tip of the iceberg of the issues that he and Superboy were having. They had just started to get comfortable with each other this past New Years - then this whole situation blew-up. Now, Superman couldn't guess how much time or work was needed for things to be good again.

All he knew, was that change wasn't coming anytime soon

* * *

**I'd just like to point out that I'm not entirely sure if both Superman and Superboy are vulnerable to lead. I know they can't see through it, but I'm not sure if they can break through it. **

**If they can, forgive the confusion. I didn't want to lace the fortress with lead cause that would have killed them, but I needed a substance they were vulnerable to. **

**Also, I don't like that Superman can't call Superboy his son. That was my own personal frustration coming out in the story. **

**Hoped you liked it. Please REVIEW!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry about that mis-fact on Superman in the previous chapter. Thanks to all who helped me get it straight. Hopefully, this chapter will make it up to you.**

**I'll be adding a new chapter everyday for the next couple of days - my head is just spinning with ideas that I need to get out, so I'm like 3 chapters ahead of myself. **

**Things are going to start getting a little... political in the next few chapters. I don't want this to be taken as political commentary or anything, just a fun story. This story was thought up of after watching _Watchmen, Team America: World Police, _and _Hurt Locker,_ so please don't take offense if you do.  
**

**Enjoy!**

**p.s - This chapter (as well as the next couple) will be taking place two years later in 2013. You'll all get that once you start reading, I think I'm just placing years here to give myself a timeline...**

* * *

_Two years later..._

M'gann hovered an inch over the floor of her apartment. Her arms were hanging freely at her sides and her legs dangled below her. Her head sagged down with her shoulders, and there was no hint of expression on her green face. She had been drifting back and forth across her living room floor all day waiting for the Earth Report to come on her television.

Finally dropping herself onto her coach, M'gann slumped into the cushions and thought about her uncle. She could see him drifting around in his prison cell waiting for the Earth Report to come on like she was. ...Actually, he was probably sitting in a chair or something - back straight, eyes stern. He was always so strong. Even though he had it worse off, M'gann was the one who showed her suffering the most.

Lucky for her, the Martian government was able to find a way to just place her under house arrest as opposed to placing her in prison like earth had asked off them. The Martian's felt that she didn't really do anything wrong and didn't need to place her in prison. However, not wanting to make Earth angrier than they were, the Martian's sentenced her to house arrest. It was the most they could do without getting into an intergalactic dispute. While the Martian's could easily wipe out Earth, they chose to remain a peaceful planet.

M'gann's days were filled with eating, sleeping, watching the Earth Reports, then going back to sleep. Once a week, she had visitors from the government to 'check-up' on her. Other than that, everything was the same. Sleep, eat, watch, repeat. It might as well have been prison.

Checking the cloak on the wall, M'gann saw that it read 6:00pm - just in time for the Earth Report.

Mars still kept tabs on Earth after the incident. They felt that if Earth ever needed them again, they would be ready. So every evening at 6:00pm, Mars would relay Earth's frequencies to broadcast Earth news channels on Mars. More often than not, it was American channels - they were the easiest frequency to pick-up on and broadcast.

While M'gann had outwardly convinced herself that she watched it to reminded her of the place she had once called home, she really watched it to see if there had been any news involving her friends. She remembered weeping when they streamed footage of Artemis' juvie trail after she assaulted a boy from her high school, and crying even harder when she saw the damage that had been done to Robin by the boy Artemis had assaulted. The worst part was they showed his injuries as a 'this is what you get when-' kind of scenario to warn everyone not to mess with the law. In the end, he was just an injured boy that they were using to exploit to the public. Maybe her image of Earth had been wrong all along.

That was a couple of years ago - she hadn't heard anything about the members of either teams. But she still held her breath every night at 6:00pm.

Using her powers, M'gann turned on the television, and made the remote change the channel, only stopping when she saw one channel that had Earth news being filtered in. When the picture was complete, M'gann set the remote back on the table and sat up on her seat - praying (like she always did) that nothing was wrong.

"Tonights top story: The official announcement that America will be engaging in war with Qurac after numerous threats to both the United States as well as Bialyia,"

M'gann frowned. Qurac had always been a peaceful nation. Yet over the last couple of months, they had been sending threatening videos to America and (apparently) Bialyia. It usually consisted of a guy standing in a small dark room with a gun in one hand and a lighter in the other. He would spew out some sort of threat, then ignite both an American flag and Bialyian flag. They were very open-ended with no actual threat being given - at least, not a specific one. The man would usually just say "Death to you both," light the flags, and end the video. Nothing about wanting to attack - just insult, and ignite. But that was enough for America to take huge interest in the matter, and place Qurac at the top of their list of threatening countries.

But M'gann knew better; it was all Queen Bee. She didn't know how, she just knew. The neighboring dictator had influenced leaders in Qurac before. Who can say that she wasn't doing it now?

"Queen Bee of Bialyia was transported to America for both protection, and to begin formulating an alliance with America -"

M'gann squeezed her hands into tight fists as a clip of Queen Bee was flashed onto the screen.

_"America and Bialyia have had issues in the past. But now; we are united against a common enemy who threatens to destroy our peace and justice."_

M'gann's jaw clenched. _How _dare_ she use the word 'justice'._

"Tomorrow at dawn, American troops will be transported to Bialyia to meet, combined, and stratagize with the Bialyian army-"

M'gann dropped her head into her hands. It was surely a suicide mission.

Both Qurac and Bialyia had strong militaries. Combined in a killing zone, American soldiers would be fighting more for there lives than they would be fighting for their country.

She didn't understand how America could be so blind. Even she could see that there was no issue with Qurac - it was all just a formulated plan by Queen Bee. The American soldiers were in danger; if not from the Bialyian's, but from engaging in hostile activates with Quarc. Lots of innocent people were sure to die for no good reason.

"And now we-…"

M'gann's ears twitched at the sound of the abrupt stop from the reporters speech. She glanced up to see that the reporter had one hand pressed against his ear, and his eyes were focused on something just below the camera. After a couple of seconds, a surprised, gentle smiled formed on his face.

"… ladies and gentlemen, I've just received word that three ex-heroes who have reached the age of consent will be shipped out to join the army in Bialyia-"

M'gann's eyes widened. "no…"

"Roy Harper, Artemis Crock, and Raquel Evens will be flying out tomorrow morning-"

"NO!"

Losing control of her powers for a second, the television exploded and was scattered across the living room floor.

M'gann didn't care - instead she collapsed onto her pillows and wept profusely.

Her friends...

In the morning they would be forced to fly out and kill innocent people if not _be_ killed by someone else. She knew they would try to save people and avoid killing, but there was only so much they would be allowed to do before being forced to do something horrible. They were slaves to war now - they didn't have a choice.

M'gann couldn't find comfort anywhere. Yes, they were strong, yes, they were fighters, and yes, they had training. They _should_ be fine. But the Martian knew better. There was a difference between fighting an army with a team of specialized operatives who you fought with before, and fighting an army with trigger-happy, premature cadets.

Her friends were doomed, and all she could do was watch.

M'gann spent the night crying herself to sleep on a mass of hard pillows. She always cuddled with a bunch of uncomfortable pillows at night - they reminded her of a certain someone with an extreme muscle build, but a soft interior.

* * *

**What shall be the fate of our three ****heroes? Find out soon!**

**And also, REIVEW**

**Sidenote: I won't really be writing about The Justice League members as much as I will be writing about the team. I'll try to throw them in here are there, but not anytime soon or with too much detail (other than Superman, but he lives with Superboy so it's kind of hard not to)**


	4. Chapter 4

**After this chapter, it's going to go back to sparse updates rather than everyday. I do apologize, but there's some editing and re-stucturing to do before they go up. I hope that what I leave you with is satisfactory. **

**So, without further ado, enjoy!**

* * *

Every evening during the week days, the Texas State Prison common room only had three people in it;

A big guy with no hair anywhere on his body; convicted of extreme domestic violence. His name was Big Chris and he had been in prison for one year.

A small guy with too much hair on his body; convicted of drug trafficking. His name was Buzzer and he had been in prison for two years.

And, a young man with fiery red-hair and (now dull) green eyes; convicted of participating in the act of Superheroing. His name, was Wally West and he was moved here on his 18th birthday a year ago, totaling up his years in prison to three.

Big Chris and Buzzer sat in the corner of the common room playing cards - gamboling away bed sheets, cigarettes, and visitation hours. It wasn't much, but it was all they had.

Wally sat on the coach at the front of the room staring blankly at the television screen. His sad eyes barely blinking as images flashed before him.

Every night at 6:00pm, the news would broadcast updates on the war, and he watched for three reasons; Roy Harper, Raquel Evens, and, most importantly, Artemis Crock.

He watched the news everyday to make sure they were safe. It helped him sleep at night. Knowing that they weren't dead got him through the evening hours. But, when he would wake-up the next day, he would be fearful that something happened. So, he would and wait, then watch the evening news again. It was a vicious cycle, but it got him through a couple of hours.

But, in a way, it didn't help that much. The war was causing way more casualties than the government had expected. It was an all American blood-bath.

For some reason, every time there was any form of 'engagement with the enemy', every American solider in the fight would die - leaving only the Bialyian's and Quarcian's to duke it out between each other. Strangely enough, the Bialyian's would always win.

No one except for Wally thought - no - _knew_ that there was a pattern. He knew this would happen from the start. He knew for sure that the war was orchestrated by Queen Bee, but no one else seemed to notice.

And the only reason that the American's weren't pulling out was because of their pride. It had gotten them in trouble before, and it wasn't going to be any different now.

Wally allowed himself to blink once as the commercials played in front of his eyes. Having Artemis there - in the midst of everything - just made it worse. He loved her too much to possibly hear if she died overseas. It would defiantly kill him.

He missed her. He missed her so much that pieces of his soul disintegrated away everyday without her there. They had only been together for a couple of months, but those were the best months of his life. He had fond memories of the time they spent together - savagely making-out in the supply closet, cuddling on the couch, or having quiet evenings watching the sunset on the beach. Other (manly most) times, she would use him as a practice target while he ran away laughing his head off at something he had done to piss her off. She always caught him somehow, and would twist his arm in a pleasurably painful way.

His attention was alerted when the theme music for the news channel began to play. He held his breath as a reporter smiled brightly at him from the other side of the screen.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I report to you tonight with some ground breaking news. First, it is my extreme joy to report that there were no casualties today in Qurac-"

Wally exhaled and relax a little in the couch. That news would allow for him to sleep all through the night - probably even through the riot alarms. It was very rare that the day would pass death-free.

"And now, for the more shocking news; According to leaked, unidentified sources, all three of the Superheroes surveying in Qurac-"

Wally sat upright in his seat. He felt as though his breath had become stunted in his lunges, and his heart had abruptly stopped beating. Sweat started to form on the brim of his hairline, and his eyes became fixed on the screen.

"- have apprehended three groups of Bialyian soldiers who were planning to kill the American sliders in their respective platoons."

Wally was relieved at their living states, but the news prevented him from breathing again.

"According to this source, each of their platoons had two-to-three Bialyian soldiers planning on planting rat poison pills in the bottles of water on the platoon sites. They were each caught in the act by the heroes, who sedated the culprits that would later be transported to a military base for questioning. When asked about the act, the culprits all responded that they had 'confused the rat poison with the water purifier tablets-"

Wally had to laugh - he hoped everyone else who heard this story thought it was bullshit as well.

"The culprits have been placed in maximum security prisons. Queen Bee had this to say-"

Wally wanted to spit on the ground when an image of Queen Bee flashed before him.

_"While I am ashamed of my solders, I cannot see the fault in their confused actions. We are not use to American drugs - the mistake could have easily been made."_

"I doubt that." angrily whispered Wally to himself.

"By now the question is; should we still trust the Bialyian's? and, should we pull out of this war? Will we conduct in discussion tonight with Head of Security of the State, American UN Representative, and Bialyian Ambassador to America."

Wally rolled his eyes. All the debate would prove is how no one still seems to understand that Queen Bee is behind all of it. He was about to turn of the TV and head back to his cell until they showed some clips of the heroes in action before the commercials. Roy, Raquel and Artemis' images flashed on screen before them. All being escorted away from the culprits they had apprehended - a triumphant look in their eyes.

When they showed Artemis, Wally gazed at the screen. She defiantly looked different; tougher (if that was possible). Her skin was dirty and her hair had been mostly chopped off leaving only spiky ends. Nevertheless, Wally still thought she was the most beautiful women in the world.

He hadn't seen even an image of her since they were separated at the young age of sixteen. He couldn't help but cry both sad and happy tears at seeing her again.

"Heh, look at that tool, eh?-"

Wally was prevented from running, but he hadn't lost his hearing. He could hear Buzzer whispering loudly about him from the other end of the room.

"-crying at his girlfriend!"

"What do you mean?" inquired Big Chris as he stared confused at his cards.

"That archer girl? Remember? she worked with Green Arrow. She wasn't really popular, but when that Act passed, she was 'revealed'. I heard through the rumor mill that she and Speedy over there were a 'thing',"

"You mean the other archer? I thought he went by Red Arrow-"

"No, you moron!" Wally admired the balls Buzzer had to stand up to a guy as big as - well - Big Chris. "It's just a figure of speech - he was the Flash's sidekick. Flash Boy, or whatever."

'Flash boy'

Wally clenched his fists so hard he heard his knuckles crack. Even after all that had happened, they still couldn't get it right.

In a low growl, he said "Kid. Flash."

Both Buzzer and Big Chris went silent. Although Wally had his back to them, he could feel their challenging gaze upon him. He heard the chair screech against for floor for a moment, and could feel the tension in the room rise.

"Do we have a problem, Flash Girl?" asked Buzzer. Big Chris chuckled a little.

Wally weighed his options; He could either a) place both of them in the hospital and get zapped by his collar until he passed out, or b) walk away. He hadn't been in a fight since the New Year's issue - his skills were probably rusty. But that didn't mean he couldn't win a fight against a couple of criminals. Still, he knew he would only get in more trouble. He could handle to idiots, but he couldn't take on a prison by himself - not without his speed at least.

Sighing, Wally unclenched his fist. "No." he breathed, and began walking back to his cell.

"Fucking pussy. Just like the rest of 'em," cackled Buzzer.

Wally had to hold in his anger as he harshly budded past them and made his way out of the door.

"How could he even land himself a chick, huh?"

Although Wally had left the room, he wasn't too far from the door. His foot steps slowed when he heard them bring Artemis into the conversation.

"Tell you one thing though - that Athena chick, or whatever - pretty fucking hot,"

Wally stopped dead in his tracks and rigidly cocked his head to the side.

"You know what I would do to a pretty thing like that? I'd show her how a _real_ man does it. I'd fuck her so hard that she'd scream-"

Buzzer couldn't finish as Wally ran back into the common room and punched him as hard as he could in the jaw. Teeth and blood went flying across the room, and Buzzer toppled over like an old tree. Big Chris grabbed Wally from behind, but the currently powerless speedster remembered his training. Using pure momentum, Wally flipped the giant over his back, and dropped him right on top of Buzzer. Hitting his head on the way down, Big Chris was knocked out, and Wally could literally hear all of the air getting pushed out of Buzzer's lunges on impact.

When the small guy was barely wheezing and slightly coughing on his own blood, Wally leaned in close - eyes burring brighter than his hair, and his mouth had formed a perfectly straight line with anger. "You'd 'make her scream' what? I didn't catch it." he asked in the darkest voice he could.

Buzzer looked more like a terrified child now than he ever did before. "Nothing, man! I was just kidding!"

"You sure about that? Cause I swear you were being serious,"

Buzzer shook his head quickly in fear. "No! No, I swear! I didn't mean nothin'!"

The corner of Wally's mouth twitched. "You did sound pretty convincing..."

"No! No! Please!"

Wally leaned in close - so close that he could smell Buzzer's years of criminal activity, cheap cologne, and heavy alcohol consumption. "If you _ever_ talk about her - or _any_ of the heroes again, I'll remove the rest of your teeth, and force them back _into_ your gums in places they don't belong - and that _won't_ be the only thing I'll do. Are we clear?"

A little blood dripped out the corner of Buzzer's mouth. He was probably being suffocated under Big Chris. "Crystal," he coughed out.

Wally smiled and stood up. "One more thing -" kicking Buzzer on the right spot of his shoulder, Wally heard that satisfying 'pop' sound that signified a dislocation. When Buzzer's whales of pain died down a little, Wally smiled "Her name is _Artemis_,"

Suddenly, Wally's collar was activated to a degree that he had never felt before. The pain was so bad that he was knocked out in a second. He figured that his actions were caught on a monitor, and the guards were just arriving on the scene. His assumptions were confirmed as he saw blurry blue uniforms and black shows running in his direction before he passed out.

The news of Wally's attack spread like wildfire. However, it didn't encourage the other inmates to want to attack him, it made them fear him. It took a lot to scare Buzzer and Big Chris, and it is rumored that the guards went to bind him, Wally West was smirking.

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**Well... Wally got a little dark here. I don't want to make him seem like a ****villain, just a very angry dude.**

**What did you think of Wally's actions? To harsh? Tell me in a REVIEW!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Warning: This chapter and the next will be fairly short... sorry.**

**Notice: This chapter is set the same time as Wally's chapter.**

**As always: Enjoy!**

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Kaldur cracked a small smile on his face as he watched the final clips of the news. Roy, Raquel, and Artemis were not only safe, but being the heroes they were trained to be. After years of being in a sorrowful state, he was glad that he finally found a reason to smile.

He remembered the day when the thee of them were sent out to the war just as clearly as he could remember his name. It was probably the most devastating day of his life. More so than the Act being passed, more so then when he was being banished to the ocean. At least he could take comfort that all the others were (somewhat) safe. Those three were wild cards; anything could get them.

As the reporter said his final sign-off, Kaldur turned off the TV and rubbed his face. It wasn't so much of a TV as it was a potion in a bowl that display television frequencies for Kaldur's viewing pleasure. However, the picture was blurry, and the potion boosted the brightness, hurting the aquatic creatures eyes. When he went to rub his face, he could feel worry lines on his forehead, and bags under his eyes. He spent more time worrying about his friends that he did years of fear had been showing for a while, but he never (and still didn't) pay them any mind.

Giving his head a shake, he stood from his bed and swam out of his bedchamber to his private bathroom and prepared for bed.

Because Aquaman was also King of Atlantis, the Atlantean's refused to imprison him. They loved him too much to put their own trusted leader behind bars. The two worlds reached a compromise that King Orin could remain out of prison and as leader as long as he didn't resurface. Kaldur was relocated to palace and placed under house arrest. Just like the Martian's, that was the most they could bargain for.

Living in the palace had it's benefits. Kaldur was allowed to attend classes with his friends Tula and Garth, the food was amazing, and the living conditions were top notch. But it wasn't the same. He wished he could be on the surface again; fighting along side his friends. But that was a dream too good to become true.

It had actually gotten worse since he had to spend most of his time with Tula and Garth. He had come to accept their relationship, and even learned to let go of Tula. But seeing them together reminded him of the love he saw on the surface through his friends. He felt like an outsider for having so many air-breathers as friends, but that was what it had come to be.

Not to mention that his feelings had shifted to someone else.

He had never though much of Raquel until she join the team. Of course, he had heard of Rocket and her extraordinary capabilities, but he found himself starting to fall for the Dakota-born hero. That is, until the act passed.

Ever since they were separated, all Kaldur could seem to manage was to think about her. He prayed for her safety everyday, and felt guilty in worry about her than the other members of his old team. Of course he missed them all, but he had a special place in his heart reserved for her. And, above all, he wondered if she felt the same way for him. Their time together had been short, but it had been impactful on the Atlantean. Did she still feel the same way about him? Kaldur knew there was no way of finding out now. So, he had to settle for moping around the palace instead.

Once he deemed himself ready for bed, he swam onto his mattress and fell asleep.

His dreams were filled of the heroine that he had come to love.

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**Thoughts: I like Kaldur/Raquel. I don't like how it was underdeveloped.**

**Apologies: Sorry that Kaldur's chapter isn't as badass as the others. Don't worry, it'll get better.**

**As always: REVIEW!**


	6. Chapter 6

**This chapter is a little short and quick... sorry.**

**Enjoy!**

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_Two Years Later_

The waitress at the counter snarled at the only costumer in the diner. It was five minutes till closing time, and she was kept waiting on the kid in the far corner booth. She had been hoping to close the diner early and get back to her place sooner, but company policy prevented her from leaving her duties as a waitress until every costumer had either cleared out, or stayed until the place actually closed and she could literally kick them out.

It also didn't help that this kid was the only remaining ex-hero who could walk freely in public.

She despised his kind for the damaged they had done in Washington all those years ago. If it had been up to her, she would have placed him in an juvie with the others until he had come of age to join the army.

However, human rights laws said she had to treat him like any other costumer; politely and warmly.

Judging by his posture, he was down about something. He was slumped over the table with the coffee mug almost being hidden by his bug strong hands. She couldn't see his face clearly as a mass of shaggy black hair poured in front of him.

She watched as he took on last swing of his coffee and raised the mug above his head, signaling for more.

The waitress rolled her eyes, grabbed the pot, and marched over to him. She hated that he was keeping her from returning home - it was late in the evening. In fact, she hated that idea that she had to wait on an ex-hero.

As she poured him a new cup of coffee, she openly frowned at him. "You've been sitting here for two hours just drinking up all the coffee and not buying a damn thing, you Goddamn freeloader," she barked. The boy didn't move or flinch at her harsh words - that only got her more upset. "Sure! Just take money away from my pay-check and time spent away from my home just so you can have free coffee, which you're too lazy to make yourself!"

When the cup had filled to the rim, the boy looked up to her.

If she didn't hate him, she would have found him fairly handsome; strong jaw, good build, stunning blue eyes.

But she did hate him.

Straightening her back, she turned on her heels and march back to the kitchen - mutter profanities under her breath the whole way.

* * *

Dick watched as the waitress stormed away. She slammed herself into the kitchen doors and left the room with no other purpose than to be away from him. He didn't mind, he got this treatment way to often.

Taking a large swing of coffee (yes, he did take it black) He allowed for the hot liquid to burn down his throat and seer itself into his stomach. He was numb to that sensation. He was numb to a lot of things now.

Ever since Bruce was placed into prison, Dick had no where to go. Wayne Enterprise swallowed up all the money from him, and there was no government funding to support an underaged ex-hero. He didn't have a penny to his name, all he was given was the Manor.

And because he was an ex-hero, he couldn't find work anywhere. No one wanted to hire him for what he used to be. Legally, they weren't allowed to do that, so they made up obscure reasons why they didn't want him. So, the young boy couldn't afford anything.

Alfred was legally forced out of working from him, and placed into a retirement home without his permission. He wrote to Dick often, and sent him parcels of perishable foods, it was just enough to keep Dick alive. He also sent him batteries for the electric heaters that were stowed in the emergency rooms in the Manor.

Now, all Dick had to do was find ways to waste time. He spent most of it either playing around with things in the Bat Cave, fixing things in the Bat Cave, or cleaning things in the Bat Cave. At night, he went to a diner down the street, drank the free coffee till it closed, then went home to bed. Caffeine didn't have an effect on him, so he would be able to sleep for a nice long time.

But Dick knew he wouldn't sleep tonight; tomorrow was his 18th birthday.

Tomorrow, he would be shipped out to Qurac and join the others.

He wasn't nervous or scared. He was pissed.

Nothing could be more of a waste of time than shooting at innocents for no good reason. Not even sitting around in a coffee shop.

However, there was nothing he could do about it. So he just sat and drank his coffee like every lonely teen would.

Dick gave his watch a quick check, only a few minutes till the place closed. Chugging down the remaining amount of coffee in the mug, he swiped a newspaper from the free stand and trudged out of the diner and back to the Manor.

He never really read the paper until the war broke out. He read to get updates on the war, but mostly to check on his friends. Sure, he could have used the computer in the Bat Cave, but fetching the newspaper gave him a reason to leave the house.

Dick missed everyone on a scale that could almost meet the amount he missed his family. In a way, all of the heroes had become his new family, and he had to watch them disappear all over again. He wasn't sure how much more of it her could take. Reading the casualty's list brought him both peace and panic - peace for when his friends weren't on the list, and panic if they would be tomorrow. It was an unhealthy balance.

He took some comfort in the fact that he might see them when he got to Qurac - but there was a bigger chance of pigs flying than that happening.

Flopping onto his bed, he flipped till the last page that listed the causality count. He saw six - none of them being his three friends.

He sighed in slight relief.

And then, he did something that he had never really bothered to do.

He read through the list.

As he read, he notices that these soldiers had almost all of the same qualities. They all died of a bullet wound, they were all in their mid-twenties, and they all had children.

Young, innocent children who had probably spent the day weeping in their mother's arm who wept along with them. And these six were just one small fraction of the many who had passed.

The war was a mistake, everyone knew it. What hurt Dick the most was the his friends were over there, and he couldn't help them in any way. He felt useless. But what killed him was knowing of the hundreds who were dead, and how The Light was probably planning all of this.

He scrunched the paper in his hand and ripped it in two.

He then jumped from his bed and made a b-line for the Bat Cave.

This needed to be stopped. He needed to do something. Now.

And not just shooting aimlessly at civilians.

Upon entering the Cave, he turned on the computer and hacked into the Government's files the war. As the computer loaded the files, he opened the cases that contained his and Bruce's old costumes.

Dick stood in front of the cases and analyzed the costumes. Old memories flooded back into his mind as he looked at the red and black colors of his uniform. When he looked at the Bat shaped cowl, he remembered his mentor - the man who took him and and raised him, trained him, and cared for him when he had no one. Bruce meant everything to him.

Sighing, Dick darted his eyes between the two costumes. He needed to wear something to protect his identity on what he would be embarking on. And not just anything - something fitted and practical like a hero costume was. However, both the Batman and Robin uniform were too recognizable. He needed something new.

Grabbing his old mask, and the body of the Bat suit. He rushed upstairs to get some sewing materials and fabric dye. These were the only materials he had, so he needed to make some changes.

And, most importantly, pick a new codename.

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_***According to the YJ Wiki, Dick was 13/14 in 2010, and 19 in 2016. This chapter takes place in 2015 so he's 18 (that was more for me so I don't get confused).**_


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry for the long wait. Hope you enjoy the chapter!**

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_Two Weeks Later_

"Is your name Zatanna Zatara?"

Zatanna cocked her eyebrow disapprovingly at the interviewing agent. _That's a stupid question_ thought the magician.

"Yes." she replied.

The agent interviewing her looked up at the man the stood hunch over a table behind her. The man studied the results on the polygraph and gave a nod to the interviewer when the results showed that she was telling the truth.

"Were you the superhero formally known as 'Zatanna'?"

It took all of Zatanna's strength not to roll her eyes. She almost felt like saying 'no' out of spite, but, even if they all knew she was 'joke lying', the test would have to be re-set and no onewanted that. _Again. Stupid_. thought Zatanna.

"Yes." she replied.

Another batch of exchanged nods as before followed.

"Did you ever work with Richard Grayson - aka the superhero formally known as 'Robin'?"

Zatanna narrowed her eyes. Dick and Bruce were masters of keeping their identity secret. It was a shame to both their names for just anyone uttering it stupidly.

"Yes." she replied, trying to produce as much venom in her speech as she could muster.

Nods, then back to questioning.

"Were you romantically involved with Richard Grayson - aka the Superhero formally known as 'Robin'?"

Zatanna clenched her jaw behind her firmly shut lips._You better not say the whole 'aka' thing every. single. damn. time._ she thought. She had a very small fuse for these idiots. It didn't help that government authority gave them permission to be poking around her personal life.

"Yes." replied Zatanna through gritted teeth.

More nods.

Then, the agent reached down and picked up his briefcase. Placing it securely on his lap, he opened the case and started to shuffle through some papers. He pulled out a thin piece of paper that was drenched with words. Zatanna didn't even want to think about trying to read it.

"Richard Grayson - aka the Superhero formally known as Robin - has been under strong surveillance ever since the Superhero Recall Act. However, on his eighteenth birthday, he disappeared. Are you aware of this?"

Zatanna blinked. She was defiantly made aware of this. The day he disappeared, she was called in for questioning. As a matter of fact, it was the same guys asking her the same questions. Because she was so concerned (and yet excited) about his 'disappearance' her answer on the polygraph were skewed, and they needed to come back in. "Yes." she replied monotony.

Another group of nods, and another shuffle of papers.

The agent paused before asking the next question. He read the question over, then shot Zatanna a very critical glare. "Did you have any previous knowledge of his plans to disappear?"

Zatanna flashed him a big smile, showing all of her sparkling teeth. "Nope." she replied, popping the 'p' sound.

The interviewer didn't need to exchange a nod with a partner to know that she wasn't lying. He just gave her a frustrated look. Both her and his partner knew all of the answers to the questions, but government policy required them to ask her. And if they hated anything, it was her sass-backing.

Sighing - almost as if he felt embarrassed he muttered out the next question. "Has he been in contact with you since?"

Zatanna cocked an eyebrow. "Seriously? How could he-"

"Just answer the question, Miss," said the interviewer. He shut his eyes for a brief moment and rubbed his eyes. He just wanted to get out of there.

Zatanna smiled again. "Nu-uh," she taunted.

The interviewer grunted and dug out another piece of paper with small printing. "Final question Miss: Do you or did you have any knowledge or ideas concerning his whereabouts or his plans?"

Zatanna's smile turned mischievous. "No."

Letting out another long sigh, the interview placed his papers back into the briefcase and snapped it shut. The other got to work removing the wires that were stuck to her head and arms, making sure that his hand 'accidentally' grazed her chest.

Zatanna just rolled her eyes_. Pig_ she thought.

Once both men were packed up, they headed for the door to call security in. A tall women in a messy uniform instructed Zatanna to stand so she could place handcuffs on her wrist to transport her back to her cell.

As Zatanna left the room, she had a small feeling of triumph over the interviewers. It was small victories like this that kept her going. Even though almost everything had been taken away from her the past few years, she found pleasure in the little things.

"Miss!"

Zatanna stopped for a brief moment and glanced over her shoulder.

The interviewer shot her a deceivingly warm smile. "I know that there's no way for him to contact you, and I can honestly say I know you're telling the truth,"

Zatanna turned fully to face him. He was never mean or rude to her, but he was never this nice either.

"But, if you do get any information, sharing it with the government may give you some added benefits," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

_There we go_. "Right," said Zatanna, rolling her eyes dramatically as she was continued to be hauled off by the female officer. "Cause they've _benefited _me so far, right?" she called over her shoulder.

The female officer squeezed her arm gently as a 'punishment' but Zatanna smiled through the pain. It was worth it.

When Zatanna reached her cell, she laid on the bed on her back, her hair sprawling out and covering her pillow. She stared up at the bunk that loomed over her, where her cellmate was probably hiding.

Her cellmate was named - no joke - Baby Boy. Zatanna didn't know her real name, and frankly, she didn't want to. On the first day of her sentence, Baby Boy tried to take advantage of her. Zatanna was able to stop her was a few moves of basic training, fighting her cellmate into submission. Ever since then, Zatanna was known as the only girl to fend off the tyrant known as 'Baby Boy'.

Zatanna had made a name for herself as someone not to be fucked with (literally), and was very comfortable in prison. But that didn't prevent her from worrying about her friends. Yes, she kept up with the news, but that wasn't satisfying enough. She wanted so badly to see them again.

With Dick missing, she didn't know what to think. But a small part of her was hoping that he was coming for her.

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**REVIEW!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hola! Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up! Hope you like it!**

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_One Year Later..._

"Hey, Asshole!"

The young photographer looked up from his prized camera that he had been fixing before the General called him. 'Asshole' wasn't his name. His name was Greg, but the General hated him. He had told Greg that the first day he arrived to the base.

"Get over here!" barked the General. He face was red from being deeply sunburnt, and was only getting redder as Greg scampered over to him.

Greg was a photographer for the Daily Planet back in his home town of Metropolis. He had been asked to do a peace on the War in Quarac - specifically on the ex-heroes who were fighting in it. The General hated Greg for having to protect him since he couldn't protect himself. "Men are dying here," the General had said "And I have to worry about you and your pansy-ass camera. You can't even _hold_ a gun, and I have to worry about you over the other men in my platoon?" From that moment on, the General only referred to Greg as 'Asshole'. To make things worse, the whole platoon took to calling him that.

When he approached the General, he received a sneer as a greeting.

"Make yourself useful around here and go get Harper. Tell him to prep for a retrieval mission."

Sampson gulped. "H-Harper, sir?" he confirmed nervously.

"Yes! Isn't the whole point of you being here is to document him? Get Harper, and tell him to get out of his cave now!"

Greg nodded hesitantly, and did as he was told.

As he walked over to Roy Harper's quarters, he was shaking in his one-size-too-big boots.

Roy Harper - formally known as Red Arrow. A terror to the others on base. The ex-hero frightened all of them - the strongest of the strongest men in the army. He didn't even need to do anything to earn his reputation. A soldier would just have to know that Roy was an ex-hero and would start quivering.

Roy's bunk was a half a mile away from the rest of the base yet he was never seen out of it. Some questioned his existence because of it. Although, from the base, the other Cadets could hear his loud, heavy metal music blasting at top volume day-in and day-out - that only confirmed that he was alive.

When Greg finally reached the bunk, he took a deep breath and knocked.

"Fuck off!" yelled a voice - almost immediately - from inside.

Greg suddenly found it very hard to speak. He had been on the base for a week and had never actually seen Roy Harper around. Even though he was supposed to watch the ex-hero and document him, he found it very hard not to be fearing away from him.

Greg stuttered as he spoke. "I-I have orders from the General-"

"Fuck! Off!"

Greg gulped again. He cold either return to the General without Harper and get yelled at, or he could try to get Roy to come out and fear being killed on the spot. Roy wasn't allowed to keep weapons in his bunk, but nothing wasn't stopping him from strangling Greg on the spot (perhaps going to prison, but anywhere was better than here).

"He needs you for a retrieval miss-"

Greg almost screamed when the door suddenly opened in his face as an angry looking solider popped his head out to snarl at the shorter photographer.

The solider was a tall red-head with sharp blue eyes that were stuck in a harsh frown. A dog-tag was strung around his neck, and he only wore a pair of old black boxers. His hair was short, but pretty shaggy, and a 5-o'clock-shadow beard was forming on his face.

However, the most interesting feature to Greg were the tattoos that Roy had on his hands. On his right knuckles were the letters A-R-R-O-W, and the letters C-L-O-N-E were on his left knuckles.

Roy looked him up and down once before laughing. "They sent you?" Roy's laugh only grew when Greg nodded. "Tell the General I'll be out in a minute… once I'm finished with his wife,"

With that, Roy slammed the door in Greg's face.

Then, the young photographer, still shocked in seeing the actual Roy Harper, slowly made his way back to the General.

"Well?" asked the General.

"He- he said he'd be out in a second."

"When he's finished with my wife right?"

Greg paused - not knowing how to respond to that. "Yes, sir,"

The General sighed and rubbed his face. Then, he shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out an old pack of gum. "He says that every time. I shoulda killed him by now."

Greg tried his hardest from cocking his eyebrow at the General. Both of them know Roy Harper could destroy him before he even thought about fighting the ex-hero. "Whelp, get you gear on and go to the jeeps," said the General as popped a piece of old gum into his mouth.

Greg froze with confusion. "Sir?"

The General frowned. "What? You wait around for a week to right a report on a hermit, and you _don't_ want to follow him around when he's loose?"

"Well… obviously… but… I… you see…" Greg stuttered as the General pushed him towards the jeeps where a group of four big soldiers were waiting for him with evil grins on their faces. Greg was assured on this trip that he would only have to get involved with the actual fighting if it affected the platoon. Going right into the mess wasn't in the plan. He didn't even know what a retrieval mission was.

"Well then, kid, today's your lucky day! An ex-hero in the field! Hopefully you have enough film in that camera!" snickered the General as he loaded Greg into a dirty, black jeep.

Before Greg could protest, the car door was smaller in his face.

Although the door was closed he could still hear the laughter from the soldiers on the other side.

Greg sighed and buckled his seatbelt. As he did, the strangest thing happened.

Everything on the other side of the door went silent.

He looked up to see Roy Harper marching over from his cabin.

He was dressed in a camouflage bodysuit and a light brown bullet proof vest. On his head was an unbuckled helmet and on his feet were tightly tied shoes. As he sauntered over to the jeep with his hands lazily in his pockets, the other soldiers quietly filed into the car. Greg was only bothered for a moment when he noticed there were no seats left in the interior of the car for Roy to sit.

Roy stopped in front of the General before loading into he car. "Well?" asked the ex-hero with an annoyed look.

The General sighed and handed him something that Greg couldn't couldn't quite see from his seat.

Roy frowned at the object in his hand. "Seriously? This is it?"

"It's the biggest one I can allow after the last incident," shrugged the General.

Roy growled and fluidly hopped onto the back bumper of the jeep. His left hand gripping the roof of jeep, the right hand clutching the smallest handgun Greg had ever seen (or thought possible to be functional).

Greg froze with fear. It may have been a small weapon, but it was being controlled by possibly one of the most dangerous men in the world.

* * *

The drive was extremely long and extremely silent.

Greg watched as the soldiers around him amused themselves with rating female celebrities and complaining about what songs came on over the only working radio station.

It had been an hour, and Greg still had no idea about what was going on.

"Ever been on one of these before?" called the driver, reading Greg's thoughts.

Greg remained silent; trying to look cool in front of the other men, but still relieved that someone would explain to him what was going on.

The driver laughed at him for a second before explaining - Greg could have gone without that.

"Retrieval missions are just that; a mission to _retrieve_ something," began the driver. "If we get a call saying that something needs to be picked up and brought back to base, we go get it. For example; we got a call this morning from an unmarked, unnamed, and unidentifiable vehicle. We couldn't make out a word they were sayin', but we managed to track down their coordinates. So, we're going out to retrieve them. It's probably a distress signal from a broken down vehicle."

"What if it's a trap from the other side?" asked Greg.

The car went silent for a moment. "They never strike first," said a solider darkly.

Greg would have asked what they meant, but he was silenced by a bang on the roof of the car door.

Looking up, he could see Roy glaring back down at them though the sun roof. "Keep your eyes on the road, you fuckers! Something could hit us at any minute,"

Roy glared at them a few seconds longer as the rest of the car slowly turned their faces towards the oncoming road. When he was satisfied, he returned to his look out position.

A minute later, a solider in the passenger's seat sneered. "Fucking ex-hero. Thinks he's better than us," he whispered to his buddies in the backseats. They all murmured quietly in agreement. "I'll tell you one thing; he may be more skilled, but that doesn't excuse the fact that he's a washed-up, loser,"

"Obviously," agreed one of the men sitting next to Greg "I mean, just look at all the times he's gone AWOL,"

Greg shot him a puzzling look. "AWOL?"

The solider nodded. "Yup. Every two months or so, Arrow-boy up there goes missing. We usually find him trying to sneak on a plane back to the US claiming that he has to 'find his clone', or some shit. What a freak. He should probably be tested-"

"Clone?"

"Yeah. He usually goes off on how he's actually a clone and he needs to find the actual body. What a lunatic. As if someone could be fully cloned like that," laughed the solider.

"How is this my first time hearing about this?"

"The government doesn't want to scare the public," said a solider on Greg's other side. "If the folks back home found out that one of the ex-heroes was trying to come back, they might panic. Especially since they lost that other one a few months back,"

Greg nodded. He knew for a fact that the public was in hysterics ever since Richard Greyson went missing. He could only imagine how they would react if another fell out of sight.

"Head's up, ladies!" shouted the driver. "Unmarked vehicle, straight ahead!"

Greg looked straight out the window. Right in his line of vision, Greg saw what appeared to be an army jeep that had been completely spray painted over with light brown paint to match the sand in the desert. If Greg hadn't been focussing, he could have missed it.

As their car got closer to the jeep, Greg started to make out three figures circling the exterior of the jeep. All three of them appeared to be male wearing camouflage clothing and black hijab's that covered most of their face. All three appeared to be unarmed and arguing with each other - they didn't even hear the black jeep approach them.

The jeep came to a grinding halt in the sand, and Roy was the first on the scene. Aiming his gun right at the three of them, he started to bark orders "Get down on the ground, and put your hands above your heads now!" The other men in Greg's jeep followed suit; all of them pulling out their much bigger guns and pointing them right at the three unidentified men.

Two of the masked men fell to their knees and clasped their hands above their heads, the third did so slowly.

The team with guns wasted no time with yelling questions. All of them asking different things at the same time, and only getting louder when the captives didn't answer. Even Greg had to admit that wasn't fair - how could anyone answer the question if they couldn't hear them?

Suddenly, one of the three men on the ground yelled something. Greg could identify that he was speaking Bialyian, but he had no idea what he had said.

With the other men still yelling, Roy was the only one to ask; "What did you say?"

To that, one of the other men replied "He said we're on the same fucking side, Speedy!"

Everyone went silent - even Roy was shocked to that extent.

Once everyone had stopped moving, Greg took the time to really look at the third man. Surprisingly, it started to look less and less like a male figure the more he looked at it. The figure's exposed forearms weren't hairy, and their hands were delicate and soft. The build was big, but smaller and more defined. Not too mention, the figures voice was defiantly not male.

It was instead a very husky female voice.

Roy approached the third figure slowly. Standing directly above it, he lazily pointed his gun a little less aggressively, and more off to the side. "What did you call me?" asked Roy. He seemed more curious than insulted.

The figure lifted their head up to face Roy. Their hijab was blocking most of their face, but one could easily make out their story grey, slanted eyes. "Has time really made you deaf, Roy Harper?"

Everyone exchanged looks, even the two other men on the ground. Only Roy seemed to know what to do.

Every so slowly, Roy bent over and gently began to unwrap the hijab from the figures head.

Upon doing to, a head of jaw-length, spiky blonde hair popped out, and a tanned, feminine face with full ups and a sharp nose was exposed.

Everyone gasped. She may have had shorter hair, but they all knew who she was.

Roy dropped his gun as he breathed out "Artemis,"

Artemis bit her lip to keep from crying as she slowly nodded.

Roy fell to his knees as they both started at each other.

They didn't speak.

Then, in a split second, the wrapped each other's arms around the other.

Both began to weep lightly in each other's arms. Nothing loud or embarrassing, just a few quiet sobs of happy and thankful tears. Roy gave Artemis a small kiss on the cheek as she looked to the sky - her eyes glistening with pool of tears in her sockets.

As the other soldiers exchanged worried looks, Greg wasted no time whipping out his camera and snapping a photo of the two ex-heroes being reunited.

Before he could even think about breathing again, the young photographer sent the picture to his boss back home.

* * *

Oliver Queen sat quietly in his cell.

He sat perched on his bed with a mostly torn copy of the bible in his hands as he flipped through the book's pages delicately to prevent further damage. He didn't follow any religion, but found it to be the only form of reading material that was available to him.

That and the daily newspapers of course. His only request was to receive a copy of the daily paper - he wanted to keep tabs on his friends, especially the ones in the war.

Most evenings were like this. During the day, he would nap, eat, workout in the prison facilities, then wait for his dinner by reading a section of the bible. For the rest of the time, he would think about the old days; how much he missed them and how much he worried for the others.

He could have it worse - he could be like Bruce.

Being considered the 'leader' of the Justice League, Bruce was kept with no access to information on the outside world. Oliver remembered reading about how they moved him to three different prisons when Richard disappeared, and not once telling him why. Oliver read about it in the paper.

"Hey! Robin Hood!" shouted one of the guards. Oliver looked up to see a bulking officer holding a small tray of bright grey slop, a cup of coffee, and a newspaper on the other side of the cell door. "Supper time," he barked shoving the tray through a thin slot in the door. Olivier didn't have enough time to react, so the tray hit the ground with a loud thud, completely spilling the coffee and shooting the slop to cover the walls. The guard laughed as he sauntered away from the mess.

Oliver rolled his eyes and approached the mostly empty plate. He grabbed the plate and the plastic fork on the try and heading back to his bed. He was about to disregard the newspaper when something caught his eyes.

"_EX-ARCHERS REUNITED! U.S GOVERNMENT IN PANIC!"_

Oliver found himself dropping the plate (causing the rest of the food to splatter off) and dashed for the paper.

The caption under the title read: "_Ex-heroes Artemis Crock (Artemis), and Roy Harper (Speedy, Red Arrow) we reunited today during a retrieval mission in the deserts of Bialyia-"_

Oliver stopped reading and unrolled the rest of the paper.

He felt tears come to his eyes as he saw the picture on the front page.

It was a huge picture of Artemis and Roy hugging.

Oliver disregarded the rest of the article and carefully tore out the picture. Using the half millimeter of coffee that was left in the cup, Oliver wet the corner of the picture and posted it on the wall next to his bed.

He spent the night crying tears of joy has he stared at the picture.

He felt like his children had been reunited. And, for the first time in a long time, he felt like there was hope for them.

* * *

**And finally, we have reached year 2016!**

**Hope you guys liked this chapter! Please REVIEW!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Another apology for my lengthy updates. Work has been killing me lately! **

**Hope you like this next bit.**

***Thoughts in _Italics_**

* * *

Artemis sucked long and hard on a think cigar.

She allowed for the smoke to slowly filter through her lunges as she deeply inhaled the Bialyian mixture of tobacco and assorted fillings. While she had tasted - and found preference to - many different cigars, she was no expert. But it wouldn't take an expert to know that Bialyian cigars were the crappiest of all. However, they were cheaper then cigarettes - they lasted a lot longer too. Sure, Artemis always had a pack of cigarettes on her when she went into combat missions, but when she was just hanging around a base, a couple of cigars could take her through the day rather than a couple of packs of cigarettes.

Releasing a long sigh as an exaggerated exhale, Artemis blew the smoke through her nose, sending it spilling out onto the pages of a book in front of her and causing it to cloud-out on impact.

The book?

_Worn-Out Running Shoes: A Memoir _byJay Garrick.

All of the copies of the book were destroyed when the Act was passed. The government didn't want any piece of writing that would make superheroes look 'good', and the people didn't stop them. Artemis had the last copy - Wally gave it to her for a late Christmas present sometime after their New Year's mission all those years ago.

While Artemis had read the book at least 20 times over the past 5 years, she kept it around as a memory of the good old days. Not her's necessarily, but the days when a hero was a hero despite all the politics. Where someone like Jay Garrick was praised without question. Even when Artemis was starting out, the public was usually hostile - questioning everything she did.

Jay had written the book while the Act was being created and debated over. He had done so to try and prove the goodness in the hearts of heroes without being too pushy and giving out too much information about the working heroes. It was a truly fascinating read. He talked about how he got his powers, when he decided to use them for good, how he trained, the villains he fought, his time with the Justice League, training his new Flash and helping him train Kid Flash (he didn't give out any names), and his retirement. All while being perhaps the funniest elderly man Artemis could read.

The book was a big flop - all the copies almost immediately going into government issued incinerators that had been distributed to libraries that carried the book. Wally was only just able to snatch a copy for Artemis before they all went up into flames.

Wally - another reason why she kept reading the book.

He wasn't in it very much, but he was mentioned quite frequently in the last few chapters. Artemis spent most of her time reading those parts over and over until she could recite them in her sleep. Jay descried Wally as 'impulsive', 'eager', 'narcissistic', and 'a kid with the biggest heart of gold' he had ever met. Artemis would smile every time she would read it and would think "_Sounds about right,"_

Artemis didn't have a lot of time with Wally after New Years, but she did think about him every day. On the back of her dog tags she had carved a little circle with a lighting bolt striking through it in homage to her incarcerated boyfriend. She often wondered if Wally felt the same way about her till this day. She figured that they had grown into two very different people since they last saw each other, but she didn't know if he still had those feelings.

Not like it matter. She also figured that she would never see him again. It killed her on the inside, but that was reality. She did love him at one point, and she knew it would hurt her for the rest of her days knowing that he would be in prison for all of them. But she had a find a way to keep him in the back of her mind (no matter how heart-breaking and difficult it was), and focus on what was ahead of her.

At the moment, it was the war she was in - the one she didn't support, but was dragged into and told to fight in. The one where she was told to kill, even though she knew the people were innocent. She had hated the idea of the war ever since it broke out, and tried to find a way out of it ever since. But nothing seemed to work for her.

So she took another drag from her cigar and turned to the next page in her book - trying (like always) to think of another idea.

"Artemis Crock."

Artemis looked up from her book. She had been reading and smoking under a small tarp that hung off her cabin that was also just at the edge of the base. Like Roy, she was seen as a threat, but keeping them both far from the base was not deemed a good idea from the General. She was seated in a weak folding chair with her legs crossed and swung up onto small table in front of her.

She smirked when she saw who was looming over her. "Roy Harper." she countered.

Roy grinned. His arms were crossed and his stance was strong as he looked down upon his former teammate. "I thought all the copies had been destroyed," he commented gesturing to the book.

Artemis shrugged. "Wally's got fast hands," she noted.

"You would know."

They both shared a small laugh. If it were 5 years ago, Artemis would have rebutted with a sassy or snarly comeback. But time had turned to competitors into pals. Even if they weren't the biggest fans of each other back in the day, they were the only allies the other had now.

Roy took a seat across from her and removed his sunglasses. "You look… butch," he commented - obviously making reference to her short hair and stronger build.

Artemis cocked her eyebrow. "Funny. I was going to say the same thing about you,"

Roy laughed and leaned back in his chair. They stared at each other for a moment before he spoke again.

"So - tell me about the past 5 years. How did you end up in my platoon?"

Artemis' smile softened. The past 5 years weren't easy for her. "Right after they let Dick and I out into the world," she began "I was charged for assault and placed in Juvie for two years."

"Why am I not surprised?" joked Roy.

Artemis narrowed her eyes at him jokingly, but explained "It was just some punk kid who was beating on Dick. Dick was smart, and just took it. I stepped in… I couldn't stand to watch them…" her voice trailed off for a moment. Roy nodded to himself a little. He knew that Artemis was the kind of girl that didn't take crap from anyone. He may have not reacted in the same way, but he still admired her for having some balls.

"Then, when I turned 18," she continued, "I was sent to be apart of a Special Forces unit here. You know those guys you found me with?" Roy nodded. "They're other members of my platoon. There's seven more a little ways north of here. The ten of us specialize in going behind enemy lines to find Quracian soldiers and terminate them on site. Not the most ethical thing. The mission's are fun. The pay-off isn't…" Artemis paused. The idea of killing innocents didn't go over very well with her morals. However, she wasn't allowed to complain, so she had to deal with it. "Anyway, I was sent with those two to scout out a location assumed to have an enemy base. Lucky for me, the car battery died. So we sent a distress signal, and you guys answered,"

Roy smiled "I'm glad we did,"

Artemis shared his smile before leaning back in her chair herself. "You're turn, _Speedy_. How have the past five years been to you?"

Roy shrugged. "I've been with these guys. We just engage with the Quracian's if they attack. Nothing to big."

Artemis nodded, then looked down to her book. Roy took this time to glance about the base. Some of the General's were discussing what to do now that they had two ex-heroes working in their platoon. Roy knew they were going to get separated, but he didn't know when. Since Artemis' car had broken down, and Roy's platoon couldn't afford to donate any of their vehicles, she and her teammates were stuck here until they could arrange a way to get them out. However, radio transmissions and requests were hard to make since they were in the middle of the dessert, and other communications were shit. Roy would be surprised if they could contact HQ within the next 24 hours.

"They're scared shitless of us, aren't they?" sniggered Artemis as she took a drag from her cigar.

Roy chuckled, but kept his eyes on the generals. "I surprised we've been allowed to talk to each other for so long."

Artemis rolled her eyes in agreement, then giggled. She returned to reading her book as Roy analyzed the men that Artemis had shown up with.

They were two Bialyian men who seemed to be quite stressed out. They were both arguing with each other in hushed voices, and kept worriedly looking over at Roy and Artemis.

"You know this is all bullshit, right?" said Roy in a hushed tone as he looked back at the other ex-archer.

Artemis didn't look up from her book. Instead, she acknowledge his comment with a quick blink. "From the moment all that shit went down." Artemis slowly removed her feet from the table and leaned forward. Roy did the same. "Three years ago, I caught a group of Bialyian's in my platoon trying to poison our drinking water."

Roy's eyes went wide for a moment as Artemis took a drag from her cigar. "The same thing happened in my platoon! Three years ago to date!"

Artemis began choking on a puff of smoke. "Are you fucking serious?" she said, trying to catch her breath.

Roy nodded. "I can't believe they pulled the same shit on both of us! At the same time no less!"

"Yeah," agreed Artemis. "I wonder if Raquel-"

Suddenly, Artemis stopped. What had happened to Raquel? Did Bialyian's in her platoon try to poison her as well? Did they succeed?

The two heroes suddenly became very still. Although they were all a part of the army, they hadn't head from each other since the act was passed. They were in the same country half way across the world, but they could never tell if the other two were alive or dead.

Artemis started to panic. Her eyes became shifty and her breath became short. The idea of Raquel possibly being dead was too much to handle.

Roy noticed this and thought fast. If Artemis started having a panic attack in the middle of the platoon, the others would surely start to pick on her. Nothing she couldn't handle, but Roy knew how proud Artemis was. She'd try to fight back, then get them both in trouble.

"Look," said Roy in a slightly shaky voice. He took Artemis' hand in his and forced a smile. "These guys are total assholes. They would have told us if an ex-hero died - just to rub it in our face."

Artemis nodded and started to calm down. Seeing Roy smile was always such a rare thing - he only used it in the most serious of situations. Because he smiled, Artemis could only figure that he was telling the truth. Raquel couldn't be dead.

Roy, however, still hadn't convinced himself. Convincing others was easy for him. But the redheaded archer found it a lot harder to convince himself when it came to panic stricken situations.

When Artemis caught her breath, she shot him a smile as a 'thank you'. Then, she took another puff of her cigar.

To this, Roy let go of her hand and gave her a stern look. He hadn't addressed it, but her habit was starting to bug him. "Since when do you smoke?"

Artemis didn't move, or even seem to acknowledge the comment. Roy wondered if she was purposely ignoring him, or just couldn't come up with something meaningful to say. He had never taken her to be a smoker - hell, she couldn't even afford to be one! She used to be a hero, and now she worked as a soldier. Damaged lungs weren't going to help her anytime soon.

Eventually, she shrugged. "Since when do you care?"

Roy narrowed his eyes. "Don't pull that crap on me. We're not kids anymore,"

Artemis looked up at Roy. She seemed pissed off, annoyed, and, surprisingly, hurt. She slammed her book shut and began to storm off to her cabin. "Then stop treating me like one!"

Roy watch as she stormed off. Even after she had disappeared from his view behind her cabin door, Roy still had a puzzled look on his face. Why did Artemis get so defensive when he asked her about her recently obtained smoking habits? Maybe she was embarrassed? Maybe she didn't like him - out of all people - criticizing her.

Roy leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. When they were teenagers, he had given her a hard time. Of course he did! He was a clone programmed into trying to convince the Justice League that she was a mole! But beyond that, as a person, Roy had always felt threatened by her.

He truly was hurt when Green Arrow showed up and unannounced his new protégé. To top it all off, Oliver had lied right to Roy's face saying that she was his niece. Even if he was a clone, Roy still had feelings. And those feelings were hurt when he saw that he was so easily replaceable.

After that, Artemis was all Oliver could talk about; _"She's really improving!" _this, and "_She's a great addition to the team!_" that. It had made Roy jealous - especially since her skills were almost as good as his at the time… almost.

But deep down, he really admired her. It wasn't until they went on that mission to the circus when he really saw her in action. Not only was she a good Archer, but she had exceptional at hand-to-hand combat skills, and a good sense of team work. Despite the debacle with Cheshire and the case (which was more him being a clone then him being jealous of her), Artemis was on her way to becoming a great hero.

Sighing, Roy got up from his chair and trudged over to his cabin. He really did respect Artemis, but maybe it was too late to show that.

* * *

_Later that night..._

Artemis lay still on her cot as the warm evening breeze gently tossed around a few fly-away hairs on her head. It was the early hours of the morning, and although Artemis had been laying on her cot with her eyes closed since the night before, she calculated that she had only received twenty minutes total of sleep for the whole night.

It was a bad habit that Artemis picked up ever since she was enlisted. She didn't trust anyone around her, so she only allowed her self a few minutes of sleep every hour until she had to be awake. For the rest of the evening, she would lay in her bed; eyes gently closed, body still, breathing steady.

She would always sleep on her left side with her left hand resting on the pillow in front of her face, and the right hand slipped underneath the pillow that her head rested on.

Her sense were always alert when she was awake, but her thoughts were usually elsewhere. Most nights, they were with the past, her friends, her family, and (almost all of the time) Wally.

Tonight, however, her thoughts were only with Raquel.

Despite how she felt after Roy reassured her that their former teammate was 'okay', Artemis still worried about her. She hadn't even considered the possibility that Raquel may have been subjected to poison just as she and Roy had. Artemis knew that Raquel was a smart girl, but, just like everyone else, heroes had their unlucky days…

The day that Act was passed, for example…

Suddenly, Artemis heard a noise outside her tent.

It sounded like light footsteps that belong to big feet. In fact, the crunching sound the shoes made as they thudded onto the rough sand was identified as the one sound that Artemis had trained herself to make distinguishable from any other sound on the plant. It was the most important sound to listen for as a spy for the Shadows, and it become the most important sound to listen for on covert missions.

Her body stiffened as she could hear the steps getting closer and closer to her cabin. As she considered the possibilities to who it might be - one of the Bialyians in _her_ platoon coming to kill her, a member of Roy's platoon that had been away from women a little too long, etc - her hand that was underneath her pillow curled around the trigger of collapsible weapon that she kept under there every single night.

She slowed her breathing even more till she could barely hear it - all she wanted to concentrate on was the sounds coming from outside.

"_It's okay_," she told herself. "_Be ready…_"

Artemis' ear involuntarily twitched as she heard the footsteps stop right in front of her cabin.

"_Steady… steady…_" she said trying to control herself.

A hand had griped the door handle on the other side of the cabin, and was now twisting it to open the door.

"_Wait…_" she commanded herself.

The door began to creak open very slowly. The only light outside her door was from an lantern that she forgot to turn off, but that light began to pour into the room as the door opened wider and wider. Artemis kept her eyes close but she could see the light flooding over her through her eyelids.

She prepared herself - "_Three… two… one… now_!"

Without warning to the entering party, Artemis bolted and sat straight up in her bed, aiming her weapon at the doorway with her arms fully extended, and her eyes glued to the entrance of her cabin.

Because the light from behind the figure was so strong, all Artemis could see was a dark-outline of a tall man with broad shoulders. It didn't seem to flinch when Artemis pointed her weapon at him, and was now staring back at her with it's hands in it's pockets. Artemis squinted her eyes to try and see who it was, but her sight was worthless against the strong back-lighting.

"Step out of the light - now!" she ordered.

The figured hesitated, but did as she asked. The first thing that artemis saw was a cocky smirk, and she knew exactly who it was.

"Well, doesn't this look familiar." joked Roy.

Artemis exhaled and lowered her weapon. "Yeah - you're still a creep that lurks around at night and tries to spy on me," she said half-jokingly. A part of her was still mad at him for the comment he made earlier - he had no right to question her choices, especially after giving her so much crap when the were teens. But by this point, she figured it was best to forgive him. After all, the only connection they had to their old lives were each other.

Roy looked to his feet, then back to her. He could sense the slight anger her voice carried but could tell by her body language that she was trying not to be mad at him. He took that as a sign to come further into the cabin.

He gestured to the weapon that Artemis held in her hands. "I see you keep one too," he winked.

Artemis looked down at her collapsible crossbow.

Not only was she not allowed to have weapons in her cabin without permission from her supervisor, but it was under the ruling of the Act that non-meta heroes were not allowed to posses the weapon of their trademark. For archers, it was bows and arrows of any kind.

Crossbows counted.

However, Artemis had always kept one with her. It was small - therefore portable, and easily collapsable, so if you kept it under her pillow, it would tuck itself together, but the second she whipped it out, it expanded.

She would be in a pile of shit deeper then the Nile River if anyone ever found it, but she needed a bow. If not for protection, for her own sanity.

Apparently, Roy felt the same way.

"I don't keep it under my pillow, though," he pointed out "just on my night stand." he added with a wink.

Artemis chuckled. "We're not a different as you'd like to think, I guess," joked Artemis as she folded the crossbow up and tucked it back under her pillow. She pulled her legs in an crossed them, signaling to Roy that he could join her on the bed. Accepting her invitation, Roy took a seat on the edge of the stiff cot and placed his hands behind him for balance.

"Them spitin' words, honey," said Roy as he jokingly narrowed his eyes at her. Artemis laugh, but tried to keep it contained. She didn't want to wake the rest of the platoon with her sounds of joy, otherwise the two ex-heroes would be sent to two different platoons on the opposite sides of the country within the hour. They were buying time to be together by being well behaved and not causing any trouble, but they didn't know how much longer that would be.

Silence fell between them, and they spent a few second in the dark listen to the dry sounds of the evening desert.

Finally, Roy spoke. "I'm going to hate myself for saying this, but… well…" he quickly focused his eyes on the floor under his seat "I'm sorry that I was a jerk to you back in the day."

He paused, and Artemis let those words sink in. She knew how proud Roy was - hell, she was the same way. So hearing a 'sorry' from him was so much more appreciated after understanding how hard it is to admit when you're wrong. Artemis one big guilt that she had to live with was that when she and Wally were together, she always tried to win their arguments. She often tried to calculate how much time she spent arguing with Wally as apposed to just being with him in the short time that they had, but the results were often too depressing to consider.

Roy continued "And I'm…" he sighed and leaned forward on his elbows "I'm really glad they found you. I'm not sure how much longer I could have taken of this by myself."

Artemis went silent.

Roy had rarely paid her any complements in the five years that she had known him. The weight of him confessing how thankful he was to have her near was almost too much for the blonde archer to handle. She sat still on the bed, not quite sure how to respond to him. 'Thank you' just didn't seem like enough. She leaned forward and placed a hand gently and comfortingly on his shoulder. When he felt it there, he reach over and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"This whole thing is fucked. But all we can do is looked to the end." said Artemis. Hearing her owns words hurt her - she knew that every hero everywhere want to do something about the mess that they were all in. But all they could do was what society wanted them to do. "Until then, we just have to find a way to get through it."

"Is that why you smoke?"

As soon as Roy said those words, he wished he hadn't. It was a slip of the tongue that he couldn't control - but it was too late now - Artemis had heard it.

Both archers had shocked looks on their faces. Neither of them could believe what Roy had just said. But while Roy's shock was more apologetic, Artemis' was more hurt.

Roy felt his body freeze - waiting to hear how Artemis would react. He couldn't for the life of him predict how she would respond, but either way - he would feel horrible afterwards.

Artemis stared back at him for a few silent seconds. Then she pulled her hand away, and folded it on her lap. She bowed her head to let her short blonde hair cover her face.

At this point, she could either lash out at him, or just forget about the question. But Artemis knew all to well the impact of keeping a secret, as well as a distant family. Roy may not be her brother - or even a close friend of hers - but in these times, she needed an ally. And Roy was the closest thing she had - she couldn't afford to push him away, and she knew he couldn't afford to loose her.

She lifted her head and gazed at the ceiling - trying to find the right words.

"It… it helps…" she started. "This… this whole mess, I-"

Roy could see small tears beginning to pool in her eyes. She wiped them away as quickly as she could. He had never seen her cry before - it was strange to him. And he figured that she was ashamed to be showing so much emotion. But he didn't mind. In times like these he found he needed a good break-down everyone and a while.

It was those times he went looking for his model. Every so often he would break down and try to hop on a plane back to America in search for the 'real Roy'. Being a clone - a fake- was a thought that always burned in the back of his mind. Sometimes it would flare up and he needed to douse it. And the only way to do that would be finding the 'real Roy'. He knew that there was a slime chance in actually finding his model, but Roy needed to keep trying - he needed to put out the fire.

But, at the moment, this wasn't about him - it was about Artemis, and the crisis she was facing/

"Nothing makes sense, everything is ruined, and-… and it's the only way I can cope…" she began to stutter. "It makes me feel better for a moment… and-and I hate myself for it!" progressively, her voice started to become louder. Her tears began to well-up quickly, and, eventually, pour onto her face. She tried to wipe them away, but the tears couldn't be stopped from streaming down her cheeks.

"I-I don't know what to do!"

Without a second thought, Roy pulled her in for a tight embrace. She cried hard into his shoulder, and they stayed like the for a couple of hours.

Roy gently stroked her head as she wept on him. As he held her he could feel her body shaking at the mass of tears that flowed from her eyes. Like endless rivers, all of the archers woes came out in heaps of hidden depression. He could imagine Artemis for the past five years letting all the rage and sadness build until this one moment where she could break down.

In her tears swam worry, regret, hatred, hopelessness, mourning, fear - everything that she tried to hide from the world while it trailed her. Roy felt devastated to see her cry so much - such a strong girl being brought down to her knees by the very people she tried to protect. She wouldn't let them see it, but she needed to let her feeling fall out to keep her from going crazy.

Artemis' explanation didn't really make sense as to why she smoked, but hearing her cry made it all clear to the older archer. She needed an outlet to calm herself down - and smoking must have seemed like the best choice to her. The worst part was, Roy knew she hated it, but she needed it.

When Artemis was finished with her emotional break-down, she thanked Roy, and fell asleep. Roy tucked her in a gave her a little kiss on the cheek while she was still awake. She smiled softly at his caring action, then passed out from emotional stress.

Roy made his way to his cabin quickly and quietly. His original goal for going over to Artemis' cabin was to apologize for his actions, and see if he couldn't restore some trust between them. After all, they needed each other for the possibly short time they had together.

And when he went over, they achieved so much more than that.

They created a friendship that used to be there in a small quantity, but grew vastly tonight once they found a common ground…

… the fact that they were both definitely _not_ 'traught'

* * *

**Bonding moments! Yay!**

**But wait? What has become of Raquel? Find out next time!**

**Until then, please REVIEW!**


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